Guess How Much Were Farmers From Jammu Paid For Flood Damaged Crops? Rs 47 Only!

Last year, in September 2014, the Kashmir region witnessed disastrous floods that lead to not only the destruction of many villages, but also the loss of lives. The heavy rainfall triggered landslides and flooding, and around 2600 villages were reported to be affected in Jammu and Kashmir, out of which 390 villages in Kashmir were completely submerged.

At that time, the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi offered an assistance of Rs. 745 crore to the state government, which was in addition to the Rs. 1100 crore already earmarked for the disaster.

However, the farmers in Jammu’s Sarora village, who saw the floods ravage their crops, are being offered compensation cheques of merely Rs 47 to a maximum of Rs 378.

The agriculture inspector in the area handed out 25 cheques to farmers, after which the distressed farmers are planning to protest against the Bharatiya Janata Party-Peoples Democratic Party government about the measly compensation they received.

 

“We were waiting for the cheques. But we saw they were of amounts like Rs 47, Rs 50, Rs 94, Rs 92.”

“This is like a joke. We lost Rs 30,000 and the cheque was of Rs 100.”

Former Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmir and National Conference leader, Omar Abdullah, spoke out in favour of the farmers and criticized the government:

 

The Modi-Mufti accord continues to prove that power was the ONLY objective. #shamehttps://t.co/9WpCFWeZRt

— Omar Abdullah (@abdullah_omar) June 2, 2015

 

Not only did the residents of these villages lose their families and ancestral houses, but crop losses upto Rs 5611 crore were reported. The horticulture sector was also affected when over 10,000 milch animals and 33,000 sheep perished in the floods. The government needs to take all this into consideration before handing out these so-called “compensation” cheques, especially when the affected people are so dependent on them.

News Source: IBNLive